Proposed EPA cuts face criticism in Congress

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt attends a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump June 12 in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. (AP photo/Andrew Harnik)

OKLAHOMA CITY – Damon Dunbar said he’s certain proposed cuts to the nation’s environmental agency will have a direct effect on his citizens if enacted.

The community development director and acting EPA director of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes relies on money the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides in grants to ensure water is safe to drink.

Tribes, rural communities, and state agencies will likely feel the pinch if the president’s proposed 30-percent cut to the EPA is enacted. Federal employees provide training to Dunbar and his staff so they can stay up-to-date on new testing techniques, find out how to use new equipment and learn new safety standards.

Dunbar said he keeps an eye on Washington budget discussions and hopes Congress won’t enact the president’s proposed cuts. Dunbar might not have to worry.

Several congressional representatives said that Administrator Scott Pruitt is likely to get more than he requested because the EPA’s work is critical nationwide.

“I can assure you, you’ll get more money than you asked for,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma.

Pruitt received Republican support and faced bipartisan criticism Thursday during the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies budget hearings.

He defended the proposed one-third cuts to his agency. He said he plans to pare back the agency’s role in determining how states will deal with pollution, giving more deference to local officials on what will work best.

“We want to partner with states to address drinking water contamination and find source water that reduces the need for additional treatment,” Pruitt said at the hearing.

He plans to cut 3,000 jobs at the agency, with about half in the Washington, D.C., headquarters and the other half in regional field offices around the country.

But several representatives said they supported the clean air, clean water and hazardous waste cleanup programs the agency oversees. Cutting the EPA’s appropriations would affect those programs.

Cole said he’s particularly concerned about cuts to tribal grants, to tribal Clean Water Act pollution control funding and to tribes’ technical assistance money. Unlike states, native governments can’t raise taxes and fees to cover pollution monitoring program costs. He said he’s confident Pruitt would seriously consider how tribes share the burden for programs.

“So when you make these cuts, how will they (tribes) make up for these cuts?” Cole said. “The ones that get the most money are the most isolated and the poorest.”

Providing money to tribes isn’t just a generous grant program. It’s part of treaty obligations the U.S. government has with sovereign Native American nations.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer of Washington said he was concerned about the pollution in Puget Sound. The water body off the Seattle coast generates $180 million in revenue from seafood sales annually and supports 3,200 jobs.

“It’s important the feds don’t leave states holding the bag,” Kilmer said. “EPA provides one-quarter to one-third of states’ (environmental) budgets, and I don’t know how we take on more of your obligations with less money.”

Al Armendariz said less money and fewer agency employees hampers the cooperative federal model Pruitt promotes. The Sierra Club deputy regional director was the EPA Region 6 administrator from 2009 to 2012. Armendariz listened to Pruitt’s testimony Thursday and said it’s not possible to protect clean air and clean water with less money and fewer employees.

While many states can run their own programs, rural communities and native tribes depend on the EPA for help. That includes everything from collecting household garbage to preventing raw sewage from running into nearby creeks and rivers.

“We were providing technical assistance grants so tribal governments can hire chemists, biologists and engineers to handle solid waste and hazardous waste the right way, so public health is not impacted,” Armendariz said. “I got to see that firsthand and I tend to get worked up about it, because it’s vitally important.”

When Armendariz ran the regional office he oversaw technical assistance grants to many native tribes. Oklahoma’s Ottowa Tribe got both money and help from the EPA staff to monitor heavy metal pollution that flowed into water from abandoned mines. Information gathered from the monitoring program provided vital information to residents and to pregnant women about whether fish were safe to eat.

Jimmy Seago’s organization also gets federal funding to help his members get up to speed on evolving pollution control rules. The Oklahoma Rural Water Association deputy CEO and his staff receive training from EPA staff members and then train his members, which include rural water districts, tribes and municipalities whose utilities serve fewer than 10,000 people.

Water and wastewater infrastructure in rural areas is aging, utility employees are retiring and a growing population puts more demand and more stress on systems. The free training the rural water association provides helps its members keep rates low.

“These are taxpayer dollars going right back into your community,” Seago said. “This is Oklahoma taking care of Oklahoma.”

He said he’s optimistic the proposed cuts won’t be enacted; the national rural water association is an effective lobbying group. He said hopes he would not have to cut services he provides to his members. But that might mean he would have to raise member rates.

Dunbar has $179,000 from two EPA grants for the current fiscal year. That money is used to help Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes staff members learn how to manage solid waste and eliminate illegal dumping. He also uses the money to monitor streams and ponds. Testing determines if pollution is flowing in rivers. That’s critical, because surface water pollution can seep into groundwater. The tribes use groundwater for their raw water source.

He has requested $212,000 for the same two EPA grants for the 2018 fiscal year.

“If we don’t get the full amount, that means less service and we’ll have to deal with what we get,” Dunbar said. “We would like to see them honor the treaty, but we are always concerned with clean water and cleaning up dumps.

“That filters from our surface water into the groundwater and that impacts us too.”